Netanyahu Criticizes Kerry Over Boycott Remarks

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and some of his senior ministers on Sunday strongly criticized groups who are threatening a boycott of Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians. Their remarks were a sharp retort to Secretary of State John Kerry, who warned a day earlier that the risk of boycotts would intensify should the current Middle East peace effort fail.

In a swift response to the Israeli criticism, the State Department said that Mr. Kerry had always opposed calls for boycotts and expected “all parties to accurately portray his record and statements.”

The heated exchange comes as the Obama administration prepares to complete and present a “framework” accord in the coming weeks, which would be a first step toward a comprehensive agreement and serve as a basis for a continuation of negotiations.

“Attempts to impose a boycott on the state of Israel are immoral and unjust,” Mr. Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting here. “Moreover,” he continued, “they will not achieve their goal. First, they cause the Palestinians to adhere to their intransigent positions and thus push peace further away. Second, no pressure will cause me to concede the vital interests of the state of Israel, especially the security of Israel’s citizens. For both of these reasons, threats to boycott the state of Israel will not achieve their goal.”

Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, Yuval Steinitz, was more direct in his criticism of Mr. Kerry. He told Israel Radio on Sunday that Mr. Kerry’s remarks were “hurtful,” “unfair” and “intolerable” and added, “Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with a gun to its head.”

The dispute clearly touched raw nerves on both sides. Soon after the Israeli remarks were broadcast, Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, issued an unusually pointed statement.

“Secretary Kerry has a proud record of over three decades of steadfast support for Israel’s security and well-being, including staunch opposition to boycotts,” she said, adding: “At the Munich Security Conference yesterday, he spoke forcefully in defense of Israel’s interests, as he consistently has throughout his public life. In response to a question about the peace process, he also described some well-known and previously stated facts about what is at stake for both sides if this process fails, including the consequences for the Palestinians. His only reference to a boycott was a description of actions undertaken by others that he has always opposed.”

The statement concluded with the admonishment: “Secretary Kerry has always expected opposition and difficult moments in the process, but he also expects all parties to accurately portray his record and statements.”

Speaking on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference about the risks of a failure of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Mr. Kerry said: “Today’s status quo absolutely, to a certainty, I promise you 100 percent, cannot be maintained. It’s not sustainable. It’s illusionary.”

He added, “You see for Israel, there’s an increasing delegitimization campaign that has been building up. People are very sensitive to it. There are talks of boycotts and other kinds of things.”

Concern is growing in Israel about the growing boycott movement against its companies. Some European supermarket chains are already shunning agricultural produce from Jewish settlements in the West Bank. PGGM, a large Dutch pension fund management company, recently decided to withdraw all its investments from Israel’s five largest banks because they have branches in West Bank settlements or are involved in financing settlement construction.

Yair Lapid, Israel’s centrist finance minister, warned last week that Israel’s economy would “retreat” even in the case of “a very partial” European boycott and that every Israeli would feel it “straight in the pocket.”

But Mr. Netanyahu also faces pressure from the right-wing members of his coalition, including many within his own Likud Party, who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state and are pushing for continued Israeli settlement construction in the areas that Israel captured in the 1967 war.

In response, the State Department spokeswoman, Ms. Psaki, issued a statement saying, “The remarks of the defense minister, if accurate, are offensive and inappropriate, especially given all that the United States is doing to support Israel’s security needs.” She added, “To question his motives and distort his proposals is not something we would expect from the defense minister of a close ally.”

The Israeli government has also been at loggerheads with the Obama administration over the Iranian nuclear issue. But Israel’s repeated announcements of new settlement construction in areas the Palestinians view as part of their future state has injected particular tension into the peace process and prompted international condemnation.

Late Saturday Mr. Lapid, the Israeli finance minister, ordered a temporary suspension of the transfer of funds to the settlements pending an investigation into how they had been used, according to a statement from his office. The decision followed an Israeli television report about allegations that money meant to compensate the settlers for expenses incurred by a temporary building freeze that expired in 2010 had instead been redirected and used by the settlers’ umbrella council for political purposes, in some cases for antigovernment activities.